


the truth of how flowers smash through the long winter

by tigriswolf



Series: comment_fic drabbles [192]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Diners, Gen, Healing, Mind Control Aftermath & Recovery, Not Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Compliant, POV Outsider, Secret Identity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-09
Updated: 2014-07-09
Packaged: 2018-02-08 02:05:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1922592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigriswolf/pseuds/tigriswolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three days after he retired, months after the mess in DC, Bob hobbled his way into the diner and told Yasmin, “I’ve found a boy who could take my place.” </p><p>[or, outside pov on the healing of the Winter Soldier]</p>
            </blockquote>





	the truth of how flowers smash through the long winter

**Author's Note:**

> Title: the truth of how flowers smash through the long winter  
> Disclaimer: everyone except the Avengers and Bucky are mine; title from Anne Sexton  
> Warnings: post-WS; mentions of what might happen in Avengers 2; talk of suicide/violence; I know nothing about owning/operating a restaurant except what Kitchen Nightmares told me  
> Pairings: none  
> Rating: PG  
> Wordcount: 1970  
> Point of view: third  
> Prompt: MCU, any, superheroing doesn't pay that well so s/he has a side job

About half a year after that whole mess in DC, what with the long-dead Nazis _not_ being so long dead and Captain America vanishing from the public eye, Yasmin Everine needed to hire a new janitor for her papa’s diner. (Still Papa’s diner even with him ten years dead; always Papa’s diner.) Bob Urquhart had been cleaning the floors and the grills and the ovens and _everything_ ever since the diner opened, before Yasmin had even been born, but he’d finally had to stop ‘cause he was just too old, now. She still paid him every month because, well, why wouldn’t she? The diner did well enough. 

Anyway. Yasmin needed a new janitor. That’s where everything started. 

.

“Should I come back?” Alex asked her, sounding scared from halfway around the world. 

“No,” she told him because he was doing what he’d always wanted, hiking his way from one end of Africa to the other, no matter the danger. “I’ll be just fine, Alexander, I promise.” 

It took another hour before she convinced her baby brother to stay where he was. He’d hated the diner all his life; she took comfort from Papa’s dream, alive around her. But finally Alex agreed to remain on his quest and she returned to stack of bills on her dinner table. 

.

Three days after he retired, months after the mess in DC, Bob hobbled his way into the diner and told Yasmin, “I’ve found a boy who could take my place.” 

Yasmin had barely begun to make her way through the stack of applications but they needed someone _immediately_. 

“Could he start today?” she asked. 

.

His name was Jimmy Barnes, he tried not to meet her eyes, he flinched at loud noises, and he always wore long sleeves and gloves. He was quiet, he kept to himself, and he followed her directions perfectly. 

“I’m pretty sure that poor boy was a soldier,” Bob told her a week after Jimmy started. “And someone’s not done right by him.” 

He was too thin, in too-large clothes, his hair was straggly when he didn’t wear it back (which, he usually wore it pulled back), and he always ate everything on the plate she made him for breakfast (part of his wage). 

He might be Alex’s age, _maybe_. He probably wasn’t. Definitely too young to look so tired. 

.

As the weeks passed, Jimmy began smiling. Began making small comments here and there to the wait staff and the cooks, usually something that sounded innocent ‘til thought about later, when you’d realize how innuendo-laden it was. He stopped flinching and met people’s gazes, but he still wore long sleeves and gloves, and he was still too thin. 

One evening, he came in with his hair shorn close and his face clean shaven, and Yasmin almost couldn’t believe her eyes. Jimmy Barnes was _gorgeous_ and he gave her a flirty smile as he got to work. 

Anna and Ryan both flirted with him, and so did Rolanda, the cook old enough to be Jimmy’s mother, but Jimmy just flirted back until their shifts were done. 

.

Jimmy only got in one fight, and it was out back, while he was emptying the trash cans into the dumpsters. Yasmin heard about it later, from Ryan, who closed that night. He said that he wasn’t sure what all started the mess, but it ended with one drunk out cold and Jimmy escorting one of the strippers from the place up the hill home. 

Since Jimmy came back to finish his shift, Ryan told her, bemused, he guessed Jimmy hadn’t gotten lucky. 

Yasmin gave him a quick smack to the shoulder and told him to seat the couple that had just come in. 

.

When a customer demanded to speak to the manager, Hettie (third week on the job) hurried to Yasmin’s office, near tears, and stuttered her way through a story about orders put into the system wrong, a seafood allergy, and Vince using the wrong kind of oil. Yasmin calmed Hettie down and went to soothe the customer’s temper. 

After everything was settled, she sent a quick glance around the diner and then took a second look at the booth in the corner, where Jimmy was sitting with a boy who couldn’t be more than fourteen. The boy was watching Jimmy speak with an awed gaze, in between bites of his burger. 

Yasmin wandered over and asked, “Everything alright here?” 

“Yes, ma’am,” Jimmy said, giving her a smile. “Evan needed help with some troublemakers, is all. I’m buying him dinner while his brother’s on the way.”

The boy (messy brown hair, bruised face, bloody fingertips splayed over a sketchpad) nodded earnestly. “We’re fine, ma’am, honest,” he said. 

“Well, you take care, Evan,” she said, squeezing Jimmy’s shoulder as she turned to go back to her office. 

.

Evan became a fixture in the diner, after that. He sketched the customers, the décor, the staff – mostly, he sketched Jimmy, though he tried to hide it. Whoever he was trying to avoid never came into the diner. 

Jimmy always had a smile for him, a comforting word, advice for how to deal with bullies. He even coached Evan through a few self-defense moves. 

Yasmin wanted to ask if Jimmy’d had a brother once, but she never did. Bob told her he’d been a soldier, and done wrong by someone, and Jimmy’s past was none of her business. 

He was so _good_ with Evan, though, and with the children who rushed around the diner while their tired parents ate, and she wanted him to – to find happiness, maybe. It’d been a year since Bob brought him in, and Jimmy had changed so much. She just wanted him to be happy, and maybe he finally was. 

.

When the Avengers joined back up together, it made headlines across the world. Yasmin watched the news (it was on every channel, she couldn’t miss it) with wide eyes, trying to call Alex. He was somewhere in Asia, having left Africa and Europe behind him. He never picked up. 

Three days later, when Jimmy asked what was wrong, she cried on his shoulder about her baby brother, somewhere in Asia, and all the riots, all the violence —

The next night, Jimmy didn’t come to work. Or the night after that. Or the night after that. For two weeks, Jimmy didn’t show up, and he wasn’t at his tiny apartment in Bob’s building, and he didn’t answer the phone. Everyone picked up the slack, and then –

Then Alex walked through the door, Jimmy just behind him. 

.

Alex had gotten caught up in the aftershocks emanating through Europe and Asia as the Avengers’ fight wound down. He’d been in a place he didn’t know, with a language he couldn’t speak, with people who were panicking. 

And _somehow_ , with only a name and a picture, all the way around the world, Jimmy _found_ him.

But Yasmin didn’t ask questions, and Jimmy didn’t offer answers, and with Alex in her guest room writing a book about his travels, life went on. 

.

Life went on until Captain America walked in the door. 

It was an hour till close, with only Yasmin, Rolanda, Hettie, and Jimmy still there. A couple was finishing up their dinner, and after they were gone, if no one else came in, Yasmin was planning on shuting everything down for the evening. 

Captain America wasn’t dressed like Captain America, in a dark t-shirt, a jean jacket, dark jeans, and a ballcap on his head, but once Alex had his posters plastered all over the walls and watched his movies every day for _months_. 

“Have a seat anywhere, sir,” Hettie called from the breakfast bar, where she’d been refilling the salt canisters. “I’ll be right with you.” 

Yasmin watched with bewilderment as Captain America ordered roast beef with mashed potatoes, a side of bacon, and a basket of bread, all to be washed down with a soda, please, thank you, ma’am. Hettie didn’t seem to recognize him, and Rolanda didn’t leave the kitchen, and Jimmy was – 

Yasmin blinked. Jimmy was hanging back by the storeroom, peering at Captain America with _longing_ on his face. 

The couple left, so Yasmin went over to clear their table. Jimmy stayed in the far doorway. Hettie refilled Captain America’s soda. 

When Yasmin re-entered the dining room, Jimmy was sitting across the table from Captain America, arms crossed across his chest. 

“It was because I found the kid, wasn’t it?” Jimmy asked. 

Captain America nodded. “Nothing for months,” he said. “A part of me wondered if you’d gone back just to be put down, if maybe you’d – you’d decided to –”

Jimmy cut him off. “I thought about it, in those first few days. Came close a couple times.” 

Captain America looked down. “I was so – I scoured the world for you, and I tore Hydra apart, and you were never there. There wasn’t a hint of you _anywhere_. And then, with, with Ultron, I had to stop looking.”

Jimmy smiled at him. Yasmin knew that she should go back into the kitchen, but Hettie was watching from by the till, and Rolanda peering around behind her, and even with their eyes only on each other, both Jimmy and Captain America _had_ to know they had an audience. 

“I didn’t want you to find me, ya punk,” Jimmy said. “I had to find myself first.” 

Captain America smiled, slow and sweet. “You popped up on Stark’s computer and I could breathe again.” His hand inched away from his plate, toward Jimmy, and Jimmy uncrossed his arms. “Whatever you decide, I’m fine with,” Captain America said. “Just knowing that you’re alive somewhere…” 

Jimmy took his hand with his own gloved one and said, “I found myself, Stevie. But I want quiet, now. I’m done with – ” He took a deep breath. “I’m done with the blood and the killing and the cold.” 

Hettie gasped, “Oh holy fuck,” but neither of the men looked over. She hurried to Yasmin and Rolanda, and she muttered, “That’s Captain America!” 

“Hush, girl,” Rolanda hissed, gesturing at her for silence. 

“Does your quiet have room for me?” Captain America asked. 

Jimmy smiled at him, bright and wide like Yasmin had never seen. “Always.”

.

When Captain America left, Jimmy went with him. He tipped twice the price of his meal, and Hettie gaped after them, and Rolanda hmm’d as she straightened up the kitchen, and Yasmin just sat at the bar, because – 

Jimmy’s past life must have been something. He didn’t even give her more than a smile as he walked out the door. 

“Hettie,” Yasmin finally said, locking the front door, “don’t tweet or facebook or tumble anything from tonight.” 

“But!” Hettie said, phone already in hand. 

“No!” Yasmin said. “Did you not see what I did? Jimmy just wants his life. Do the decent thing and let him have it.” 

Hettie looked down at her phone and it was a long moment before she nodded, putting it away. “I’ll walk you to your car,” Yasmin said, and Rolanda followed. 

As Hettie drove away, Rolanda asked, “Think that boy’ll ever be back?” 

Yasmin shrugged. “I don’t know.” 

As always, they’d parked next to each other, so they both climbed into their cars and headed to their homes. 

.

Alex was still awake, flipping through the channels. Like usual, there was nothing on. 

Yasmin paused on the way to her room. “Alex, what was Bucky Barnes’ real first name?” 

“James,” he said without looking away from the horror movie’s screaming blonde. 

Of course. Jimmy Barnes. How in the hell… but it didn’t matter, did it? 

She hoped he’d found his happiness – or, rather, that his happiness had found him. 

.

Captain America vanished from the public eye. Jimmy Barnes never worked another shift at Yasmin’s diner. 

Life went on.


End file.
